St. Katharine Drexel Award

(formerly Certificate of Merit 1966-2001)

The St. Katharine Drexel Award was established in 1966 under the title Certificate of Merit and renamed in 2002. Presented by the High School and Young Adult Library Services Section through the St. Katharine Drexel Award Committee, the St. Katharine Drexel Award recognizes an outstanding contribution to the growth of high school librarianship.

Dr. Lesley Farmer, Professor at California State University Long Beach, coordinates the Teacher Librarianship program, and manages the California State University ICT Literacy Project. She earned her M.S. in Library Science at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in Adult Education from Temple University. Dr. Farmer has worked as a teacher-librarian in K-12 independent and public school settings as well as in academic, public, and special libraries. She chaired the IFLA School Libraries Section, serves as IASL’s Library Education SIG chair, and is a Fulbright scholar. Among other awards, she was honored with the ALA Beta Phi Mu Award for contributions to library education, and the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award. A frequent presenter and writer for the profession, including Catholic Library World, Dr. Farmer’s research interests include information and digital literacy, technology equity issues, and assessment. Dr. Farmer’s most recent books include Managing the Successful School Library (American Library Association, 2017), Library Improvement through Data Analytics (American Library Association, 2016) and Information and Digital Literacies: A Curricular Guide for Middle and High School Librarians (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).